Many languages are spoken there, Setswana (Tswana) being the main language. English, Kalanga, and the native language of the Kgalagadi, are also spoken.

Because the city had no tribal affiliation and was close to fresh water, the city was planned to be the capital in the mid-1960s when the Bechuanaland Protectorate became an independent nation. The centre of the city is a long strip of commercial businesses, called the Mall, with a semicircle-shaped area of government offices to the west of the Mall. The city is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, and this has created problems with housing and illegal settlements. The city has also dealt with conflicts spilling into the country from Zimbabwe and South Africa during the 1980s.

Evidence shows that there have been inhabitants along the Notwane River for centuries. In more recent history, Kgosi Gaborone left the Magaliesberg to settle in the area around 1880, and called the settlement Moshaweng. The word Gaborone literally means it does not fit badly or it is not unbecoming.[12] The city was then called Gaberones by the early European settlers.[13] Gaberones, derived from Gaborone's Village, was named after Chief Gaborone of the BaTlokwa,[9] whose home village, now called Tlokweng, was across the river from the Government Camp, the name of the colonial government headquarters. The nickname, GC, comes from the name Government Camp.[11] In 1890, Cecil John Rhodes picked Gaberones to house a colonial fort.[14] The fort was where Rhodes planned the Jameson Raid.[13] The city changed its name from Gaberones to Gaborone in 1969.[15]

In 1965, the capital of the Bechuanaland Protectorate moved from Mafeking to Gaberones. When Botswana gained its independence, Lobatse was the first choice as the nation's capital. However, Lobatse was deemed too limited, and instead, a new capital city would be created next to Gaberones.[11] The city was chosen because of its proximity to a fresh water source, its proximity to the railway to Pretoria, its central location among the central tribes, and its lack of association with those surrounding tribes.[16]

The city was planned under Garden city principles with numerous pedestrian walkways and open spaces.[17] Building of Gaborone started in mid-1964. During the city's construction, the chairman of Gaberones Township Authority, Geoffrey Cornish, likened the layout of the city to a “brandy glass” with the government offices in the base of the glass and businesses in the “mall”, a strip of land extending from the base.[18]

Most of the city was built within three years. Buildings in early Gaborone include Assembly buildings, government offices, a power station, a hospital, schools, a radio station, a telephone exchange, police stations, a post office, and more than 1,000 houses.[19] Because the city was built so quickly, there was a massive influx of labourers who had built illegal settlements on the new city's southern industrial development zone. These settlements were named Naledi. Naledi literally means the star, but could also mean under the open sky or a community that stands out from all others. In 1971, because of the growth of illegal settlements, the Gaborone Town Council and the Ministry of Local Government and Lands surveyed an area called Bontleng, which would contain low-income housing. However, Naledi still grew, and the demand for housing was greater than ever. In 1973, the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) built a "New Naledi" across the road from the "Old Naledi". Residents from Old Naledi would be moved to New Naledi. However, the demand for housing increased yet again; moreover, the residents who relocated to New Nadeli disliked the houses. The problem was solved in 1975 when Sir Seretse Khama, the president of Botswana, rezoned Naledi from an industrial zone to a low-income housing area.[20]

Today, Gaborone is growing very rapidly. In 1964, Gaborone only had 3,855 citizens;[23] seven years later, the city had almost eighteen thousand residents.[24] The city originally planned on 20,000 citizens, but by 1992, the city had 138,000 people. This has led to many squatter settlements on undeveloped land.[25] Former mayor Veronica Lesole has stated that Gaborone's development problems were caused by the original city planners.[26]

Gaborone has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classificationBSh). Most of the year, Gaborone is very sunny. The summers are usually hot. The nights are cool. Usually, the summers with little rainfall are warmer than summers with regular rainfall. If there is a drought, the hottest temperatures of the year are usually in January or February. If there is normal rainfall, the hottest temperatures are usually in October, right before the rain starts. During the winter, days are still warm, and the nights are cold.[29]

There are on average seventy-four days per year with temperatures above 32 °C (90 °F). There are on average 196 days per year with temperatures above 26 °C (79 °F). There are on average fifty-one days per year with temperatures below 7 °C (45 °F). There is on average one day per year with temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F).[30] The average dew point peaks around January and February at 16 °C (61 °F) and hits the lowest levels in July at 2 °C (36 °F). The average dew point in a given year is 10 °C (50 °F).[30]

Precipitation in Gaborone is scanty and erratic. Most of the rainfall in Gaborone falls during the summer months, between October and April.[29] There are on average forty days of thunderstorms per year, most of them happening during the summer months, and four days of fog, usually happening during the winter months.[30] Gaborone has been affected by three floods based on records going back to 1995, one in 2000, one in 2001 that caused an estimated 5,000,000 Botswana pula worth of damage, and one in 2006.[28]

The highest humidity occurs in June at 90% while the lowest humidity is in September at 28%.[29]

Solar radiation levels range from 14.6 MJ/m2 in June to 26.2 MJ/m2 in December.[29]

It is windier from September to November at 14 kilometres per hour (8.7 mph), and it is calmer from May to August at 8 kilometres per hour (5.0 mph). The average wind speed in a given year is 12 kilometres per hour (7.5 mph).[30]

The population, based on the 2011 census, is 231,626. There are 113,603 males and 118,023 females in the city.[5] There are 58,476 households in Gaborone.[31] In 2001, the average household size was 3.11 people. The city of Gaborone is home to over 10% of the population of Botswana.[8][22] Almost half of Botswana citizens live within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of Gaborone.[32]

The population growth rate of Gaborone is 3.4%, the highest in the country. This is most likely because the city has a more developed infrastructure, making it more livable.[33] Gaborone is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.[9] Much of the growth is based on net in migration from the rest of Botswana.[34]

The sex ratio of Gaborone is 96.3, meaning that there are 963 men for every 1,000 women.[5] Most of the marriages in Botswana are registered in Gaborone; about 15% of all marriages in Botswana were registered in Gaborone in 2007.[35] On average, there are 3.3 persons per household in Gaborone. This is a low number compared to the rest of Botswana.[8]

The National Museum and Art Gallery is located just northwest of the Mall along Independence Road.[41] The museum opened in 1968. It holds many things from traditional crafts to works of art by local artists. The museum houses original paintings by Thomas Baines and Lucas Sithole. Exhibits include Artists in Botswana, Children's Art Competition and Thapong International. Outside the museum, there are various forms of transportation such as wagons, sledges, and bakkies (pickup trucks). There is also an exhibit on the San, the earliest inhabitants of southern Africa.[42] The museum opened a 3.6-hectare (9-acre)[43] botanical gardencalled the National Botanical Garden on 2 November 2007.[44] The garden was built to protect Botswana's indigenous plant life, and 90% of its total plant species are native plants from Botswana.[43]

The Maitisong Festival was started in 1987 and is held every year for seven days on either the last week of March or the first week of April. The festival holds outdoor concerts, plays, and films in various venues around the city.[13]

“My African Dream” is a performing-arts competition that is held every year at the Gaborone International Convention Center. The show features many kwaito dancers and musicians.[22]

Several international companies have invested in the city: Hyundai, IBM, Daewoo, Volvo, Owens-Corning, and Siemens.[34] Orapa House, owned by Debswana, is where the diamonds mined from Debswana are sorted and valued. Orapa House, located at the intersection of Khama Crescent and Nelson Mandela Drive,[41] has a unique style of architecture that allows the perfect amount of indirect sunlight to shine through the windows in order to accurately sort diamonds.[45] The Botswana Resource Conference is held annually at the Gaborone International Conference Centre.

The unemployment rate in Gaborone is 11.7% as of 2008.[46] 19.7% of the population in Gaborone is employed in the financial sector.[46]

The Steinmetz Gaborone Marathon, the second marathon in Botswana, was held 18 April 2010. The route started at the Phakalane Golf Estate in Phakalane, north of the city, and went through Gaborone, passing the National Assembly Building. The marathon is expected to be held annually and through one of its sponsors, Botswana Tourism, hopes to be a tourism attraction for the global masses.[50]

The Gaborone Dam is located south of Gaborone along the Gaborone-Lobatse road, and provides water for both Gaborone and Lobatse. The dam is the biggest in Botswana, able to hold 141,400,000 cubic metres (184,900,000 cu yd).[51] It is also starting to be marketed as a recreational area. The northern end of the reservoir is planned to become an entertainment venue called The Waterfront. There is a yacht club, called Gaborone Yacht Club, also on the northern side of the lake. The southern end houses the Kalahari Fishing Club and a new public facility called City Scapes. City Scapes contains parks, playgrounds, and boating facilities.[52] The dam is popular with birdwatchers, windsurfers, and anglers.[13] However, there is no swimming due to crocodiles and parasitic bilharzias.[45]

Kgale Hill is located a few hundred metres from the city. The hill is nicknamed the Sleeping Giant and is 1,287 metres (4,222 ft). There are three different paths to reach the top, usually taking two hours.[13]

Somarelang Tikologo (Environment Watch Botswana) is a member-based environmental NGO housed inside an ecological park at the heart of Gaborone. The aim of the organization is to promote sustainable environmental protection by educating, demonstrating and encouraging best practices in environmental planning, resource conservation and waste management in Botswana. The park was officially opened by the Botswana Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Onkokame kitso Mokaila on 27 February 2009. The park contains a playground for children to play on throughout the day, a community organic garden, a recycling drop-off center, and a shop where visitors can purchase products made of recycled material.[54]

Gaborone is controlled by the Gaborone City Council, the wealthiest council in Botswana.[55] It is composed of 35 councillors representing the wards of Gaborone. The Townships Act mandates the structure of local governments in Botswana. Because Botswana is a unitary state, the power of the local councils are delegated from the national level. The Ministry of Local Government, Land and Housing has a major influence in terms of personnel hiring and training, budgeting, and development planning.[56]

The city commission-style council is run by the city clerk and the deputy city clerk. The city is governed by the mayor, deputy mayor, and several committees run by councillors: the financial and general purposes committee; the public health, social welfare and housing committee; the Self-Help Housing Agency (SHAA) management committee; the town planning committee; the trade licensing committee; and the education committee.[34] The councillors elect the mayor in a first-past-the-post system and place each other in the committees yearly.[23] The council has 2,515 employees.[34]

An income tax called the Local Government Tax used to be the main source of income of the city council, but it was abolished. Today, the city council derives most of its revenue from property rates. City councillors feel that because of recurrent obligations, they have little room to institute new solutions.[56]

The city council has been criticised by the Botswana Association of Local Authorities for its closed elections and minimal authority.[23] In 2010, the council had problems with waste management: Frenic, the waste management company hired by the city, sued the Gaborone City Council for unpaid compensation.[57] This has led to a buildup of uncollected garbage.[58] Haskins Nkaigwa, mayor of Gaborone from 2011, has stressed the importance of more local autonomy. He advocates for a stronger city council with the power to determine budgets and hire and fire clerks and officers.[59]

Before 1982, Gaborone held one parliamentary constituency, one seat in the Parliament of Botswana. From 1982 to 1993, Botswana was divided into two constituencies, Gaborone North and Gaborone South. A third seat in Parliament was given to a member elected for the whole city of Gaborone. In January 1993, two new constituencies were created: Gaborone West and Gaborone Central. For local government elections, the four constituencies were divided into wards. Gaborone North had seven, Gaborone West had seven. Gaborone Central had six, and Gaborone South had five.[34] In 2002, the city had five constituencies: Gaborone North, Gaborone Central, Gaborone South, Gaborone West North, and Gaborone West South.[61]

There are more people who have earned a degree or postgraduate qualifications in Gaborone than anywhere else in Botswana. 70.9% of the population of Gaborone have earned at least a secondary-level education[8] 2.6% of the population of Gaborone has never attended school.[46]

Gaborone has many primary and secondary schools, both public and private. These include Westwood International School, Maru-a-Pula School, Legae Academy, Northside Primary School and Thornhill Primary School. Seventeen of the sixty private schools in Botswana are located in Gaborone.[63]

Radio station Yarona FM broadcasts from Gaborone; its frequency in Gaborone is 106.6 FM. Another small, local radio station in Gaborone is Gabz FM.[66] 86.6% of Gaborone households own a working radio.[46]

Before 2000, residents of Gaborone received television programming from BOP TV in Mahikeng via a repeating transmitter on the summit of Kgale Hill.[66] Today, the Gaborone Broadcasting Company and Botswana TV provide television programming for Gaborone. 78.7% of the households in Gaborone have a working television.[46]

Gaborone is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. The growth of Gaborone, especially suburban growth, has caused much of the farmland surrounding the city to be absorbed into the city. Much of the food for Gaborone comes from north of the city with some smaller-scale farms on the southern end.[67]

The city centre was planned to be functionalist,[17] with major buildings designed and built in the style of Modern architecture. The city is surrounded by smaller buildings.[68] The city's central business district (CBD) is still under construction so when one says downtown, they actually mean the Main Mall and Government Enclave areas where tall buildings are usually found.[68][69] The Main Mall, a car-free shopping and commercial area, runs in an east-west direction with the Government Enclave and National Assembly on the west end and the Gaborone City Town Council complex on the east.[12]

Gaborone's CBD is home to the new Square Mall, The Tower, the new SADC headquarters, the Industrial Court,[70] a court specifically for settling trade disputes,[71] and the Three Dikgosi Monument, a landmark featuring the statues of Khama III, Sebele I, and Bathoen I,[72] three dikgosi, or chiefs, who traveled to Great Britain to establish the Bechuanaland Protectorate separate from Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) or the Cape Colony (present-day South Africa). The monument was inaugurated on 29 September 2005.[73] While the statues represent famous historical figures, there has been some controversy over the cost of the construction, P12,000,000 (approx. US$1.7M, €1.4M, or £1.1M as of June 2010), and over the construction company, North KoreanMansudae Overseas Projects, putting the wrong inscription date.[74] Other buildings under construction in the CBD include the Holiday Inn Gaborone, retail space, and office space.[75]

The city gets most of its water from the reservoir formed from the Gaborone Dam on the southeast side of the city, which has facilitated growth.[11] The city of Gaborone was originally constructed as a small town, so the Gaborone Dam needed to be built to provide water for all its citizens.[27]

From 2007 to 2008, 23,963,000 cubic metres (31,342,000 cu yd) of water was sold in Gaborone. The government sector bought the most water, 11,359,000 cubic metres (14,857,000 cu yd). 8,564,000 cubic metres (11,200,000 cu yd) of water was bought for domestic use, and 4,040,000 cubic metres (5,280,000 cu yd) of water was bought by the commercial and industrial sectors. In 2008, the city of Gaborone consumed 25,657,363 kilolitres (33,558,564 cu yd) of water, and the water consumption per capita was 0.184 cubic metres (0.241 cu yd) per person per year, the lowest rate since 1999.[51]

Gaborone has some of the highest water tariffs in the country because of high transportation costs and high water consumption. The high tariffs may also be due to the fact that some of Gaborone's water supply is imported from the Letsibogo Dam.[51]

The average pH of the water in the Gaborone Dam is 7.95 as of February 2006. The concentration of calcium in the reservoir was 14.87milligrams per litre from April 2001 to August 2006. During the same period, the concentration of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was 57.73 milligrams per litre, slightly over Botswana's ideal concentration which means the water is hard. Also during the same period, the chloride concentration was 6.44 mg/l, the fluoride concentration was 0.54 mg/l, the potassium concentration was 6.72 mg/l, and the sodium concentration was 10.76 mg/l.[51]

The Botswana Red Cross Society, established in 1968, is headquartered in Gaborone. The Princess Marina Hospital is the main referral hospital in Gaborone and currently houses 500 beds.[76]

The Cancer Association of Botswana is a voluntary non-governmental organization established as a trust in 1998. The Association is a leading service provider in supplementing existing services through provision of cancer prevention and health promotion programmes, facilitating access to health services for cancer patients and offering support and counselling to those affected. Its headquarters is at Diktlhakore Way, Extension 12, Gaborone.

AIDS is a very serious problem in Gaborone. 17,773 Gaborone citizens, 17.1% of the total population of Gaborone, have tested positive for HIV. There is a higher prevalence of HIV among women; 20.5% of women have tested positive compared to 13.6% of men. The population between 45–49 years of age are most likely to have AIDS with 35.4% of the residents in that age group testing positive.[46]

HIV/AIDS education is somewhat limited in Gaborone. 14.5% of Gaborone residents between 10–64 who have heard of HIV/AIDS believe that HIV can be spread through witchcraft, and 31.3% of the residents believe HIV can be spread through mosquito bites.[46]

In 2008, Sir Seretse Khama International Airport handled 15,844 aircraft movements, second only to Maun Airport(ICAO code: FMBN[82]IATA code: MUB[82]) Air traffic in Gaborone has decreased since 2006. However, Gaborone has the most air passenger traffic, accounting for 51.6% of all passenger movement in Botswana. International passengers total 244,073 passengers while domestic air passenger movement comes up to 333,390 passengers.[83] Gaborone International Airport terminal was rebuilt into a modern terminal in 2010.

Gaborone has several vehicle licensing stations. 15,538 new private motor vehicles, accounting for 46.5% of Botswana's total new vehicle registrations, were registered in Gaborone in 2008, of which 8,440 were passenger cars, 440 were minibuses, 204 were motorcycles, and 181 were tractors. The total has increased from 12,690 new vehicle registrations in 2007. Gaborone also has the highest number of vehicle registration renewals at 73,206 in 2008.[83]

Including the district of Gaborone West, Gaborone had 9,415 vehicle accidents with 74 human fatalities in 2008. Most of the traffic collisions in that year, 3,146 collisions, were side collisions. 263 accidents involved animals. The city has also seen 679 pedestrian casualties in 2008; 24 pedestrians were killed. The biggest majority of vehicle accident casualties involved pedestrians, and most traffic accidents occur between 16:00 and 18:00.[83]

Kombi

Public transport in the city is generally reliable, when compared with major African cities. Kombis (small vans) and taxis ply the routes within the city while buses serve surrounding villages and other towns in Botswana.[9]